Installing Ubuntu LinuxCSCI 140 – Fall 2008

Action Lab

Dr. W. Jones

Introduction – What is Linux

Linux is an operating system Linux is FREE Linux is perfect for software development

– Many common IDEs and compilers are FREE

Linux is perfect as a SERVER– Web, email, ftp, NFS file, application

Linux is NOT great for 3D gaming– Not many titles are released for Linux

There are many ‘distributions’ of Linux– Ubuntu, RedHat, Fedora, Debian, Suse, Gentoo, Slackware, etc

Installing Ubuntu

There are many ways to install Ubuntu. Some (common ways) require resizing and re-partitioning your hard drive. Since you’ve probably already got Windows XP or Vista running on your laptop, a fast and safe(er) way to install it is by installing it from the CD as the directions that follow prescribe.

First, boot into Windows and place the CD in the drive. If it does not autorun, go to the drive in My Computer for example, and double click on it.

After Booting into Windows

1. Click on “Install Inside Windows” 2. You have to choose a potential size of the file system you want to have access to after Ubuntu is installed. I’d recommend around 8GB. No less than 3. Enter you CCU userid, but you may want to use a different password. Then click Install.

This will take some time, be

patient, it’s worth it!

After Initial Installation

Click Finish to Reboot Now. It is VERY important that you allow your computer to completely reboot into Windows first before trying to enter Ubuntu. Gracefully shutdown Windows, and then after BIOS post, select Ubuntu from the bootloader.

After BIOS Post You’ll See

Again, make sure that after the initial install, you let Windows completely reboot and then gracefully shutdown before selecting Ubuntu on subsequent boots.

Menus FireFox

Networking

After Logging Into Ubuntu You’ll See

Now we should do some initial configuration

The “Panel”

Adding “Widgets” to the Panel

Right-click on the panel, and click “Add to Panel”

I personally like:

Frequency ScalingBattery MonitorSystem MonitorWeatherWorkSpace SwitcherScreen Lock

After Adding Widgets You’ll See

HINT: You can configure many widgets by right-clicking on them.

Check Out What’s In the Menus

Just look around and see the names of what is there.

We’ll be needing a terminal later, so go to:Applications Accessories Then move the mouse over “Terminal” and LEFT-CLICK and click “Add to Panel”

Now might be a good time to “get on the network”

Getting On the Network

Click on the network icon and select CCUUnwired.

If this is not available, your wireless chipset may not be ‘easily’ supported by Ubuntu. Try connecting your laptop to a wired Ethernet connection.

As you laptop connects, you’ll see some animation here.

After successfully connecting to wireless, you should see:

Adding New Free Software

Synaptic is one way of searching for and adding new software.

It can be found in: System Administration Synaptic

You’ll need you password to access this feature

Installing the Sun Java SDK

In Synaptic, do a search for “Sun Java” Scroll down and look for “sun-java6-sdk” Click the box and click “Mark for Installation” Then click “Apply” in Synaptic, and then “Apply” again

Let’s Download a Linux-type Zip File

Linux often uses a tar.gz file type to agglomerate and compress multiple files

You may need to set the preferences in Firefox to ask you for a save locations. (you’ll want to specify where to save files)

Go to: http://ww2.coastal.edu/wjones/linux Save the hello.tar.gz file to

/home/<your userid>/ Then open a terminal using this icon you

installed on the panel.

Unzipping the file

Once the terminal appears, you should be able to type “ls” at the command prompt and see your files.

Keep in mind, Linux has all the same abilities to use things like “explorer” and other GUI interfaces in Windows using point and click, but for the sake of learning something new, we’re doing it this way.

You should see the file: hello.tar.gz At the prompt, type “tar xvfz hello.tar.gz” You can use the tab key to quickly spell out the rest

of the name for you, type typing just the first couple letters of the filename and then press tab.

Now, press enter. Now type “ls” again, what do you see now?

Changing Directories (Folders)

Type “cd hello” This switches you to the “hello” subdirectory Do another “ls”, what do you see?

There are many linux commands, don’t worry if you feel a little overwhelmed at first

Compiling a Java program

Type “javac hello.java”, press enter Do an “ls” what has now appeared in the

directory?

To run the java program, type “java hello”, press enter.

Check out the java code on the next slide:

What Does This Code Do?

Try Passing a Command-line Parameter

Type “java hello John” Type “java hello 10”

What seems to be the case?

Now For Some More Fun

Go to the synaptic package manager Search for “chromium” Install it Run it by going to

“ApplicationsGamesChromium”

OpenOfficeA Free Alternative to MSOffice

From Ubuntu Menu at top left of screen: Goto: Applications Office OpenOffice Word Processor

After it opens, type out a short test memo and save it as a MS Word 97/2000/XP file (using the File menu)

In Firefox, login to your CCU webmail and email yourself a copy of the file. Later in Windows, see if you can open the file. Does it look the same?

In OpenOffice, try exporting the file as a PDF (in the File Menu)

From Ubuntu Menu at top: Goto: Places Documents Find the exported PDF of the test memo. Double Click on it.

PDFs Continued

What application opened the PDF document?– Hint, after it opens, goto Help About in that application

What if I want to use Acrobat Reader?

It doesn’t seem to be in the Synaptic Package Manager. (search for adobe or acrobat). That’s because Acrobat Reader in not in one of the repositories that come loaded in Ubuntu due to legal reasons. To add this repository, goto:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu

Adding New Repository From the Command Line

Folllowing the directions on that site: Open a terminal and type:

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/hardy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list

Then type:sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get update

(These lines can be copied/pasted by highlighting the string in the browser, and then using the middle mouse button in the terminal)

Finish Installing Acrobat Reader

After that is done, reopen Synaptic, and do a reload. You may get a message about Medibuntu not being authenticated. Accept it.

Then search for adobe and select ‘acroread’. Apply this, and install it.

In a new terminal (or in the one that was already open type rehash), type acroread

This should open acrobat reader.

Reopen PDF in Acroread

Double-click on the test memo in Places Documents

Does it open in acroread?

So, right-click on the document icon, and select with “open with application”

If acrobat is not listed there, we need to browse to it on the HDD. Where would it be?

Open a terminal and type: which acroread That will tell you the path Navigate to this location under the browser, and now

it will open with acroread.

GimpGNU Image Manipulation Program

Want to edit images, make transparent GIFs, logos? Something like paintshop? Goto: Applications Graphics Gimp (Keep in mind, Gimp is a complex piece of software) Goto FileNewImage Accept default options Draw in the image. Goto: File Save As Look at all the types of files Gimp to export to. Much more than MS Paint!

Built-in Calculator

Applications Accessories Calculator Once that is open, goto: View Scientific Check out all the included functions, and

bases.

Set a Screen Saver

Goto: System Preferences Screensaver

Check out what’s available. I like MatrixView

Windows Network

Check out: Places Network Click on the Windows Network Is there anything there?

At home, if you have file and printer sharing on a Windows machine enabled, you can connect to it from Ubuntu.

Killing a Process

Got an application ‘hung’ or the CPU is always at 100%, you may need to kill a process.

Can be done from command-line, but: Goto: SystemAdministrationSystem

Monitor Open Firefox in an adjacent workspace Locate the firefox process in the System

Monitor. Kill it

EvolutionAn MS Outlook-like Client

Goto: ApplicationsInternetEvolution Mail Use your CCU email address Email Server Type is IMAP Server address is mail.coastal.edu Plain Text Login Outgoing Server is imap.coastal.edu Plain Text Password After the configuration is done, restart Evolution and

enter password, and you should see your email! Send a test email to and from your email at CCU and see

if you see it in Evolution